Washing Machine Bearing Replacement

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When a washing machine’s bearings go out, the biggest question that people have is:

Is it possible to replace my washing machine bearings without replacing my rear outer tub? (Or in the case of top load washers the outer tub.) The answer is yes, sort of. More and washing machines are being manufactured with bearings. Unfortunately, the only thing between the water in the washing machine and the bearing is a seal. When the seal begins to leak, water gets into the bearings destroying the bearing. This causes your washer to sound like a jet plane is taking off or splattering grease like substance inside the back of your front loader, or in the case of a top load washer splattering the rusty grease substance on your floor.

One such person is Jerod Sessler with Yellow Van Handy Man. On his web page, Jerod sells bearing kits with and without seals. I have been following his Google Group board and after being a part of it for probably close to a year, I’ve only seen a few come back later saying they have had issue with the new bearing/seal that they installed.

If you decide to try to replace the bearings the way Jerod suggests, I would caution you that first, I have yet to try it myself. I have been itching to try to fix one of these front loaders with a bearing kit, but have yet to come across a front loader that the tub wasn’t either destroyed or the whole machine wasn’t worth fixing. Secondly, part of the reason manufacturers sell the outer tub with the bearings already installed is probably to reduce human error. What I’m saying is replace the bearings at your own risk. Thirdly, be sure that your spider arm is in good enough shape for the repair and that your tub hasn’t been destroyed by the bad bearing or broken spider arm. A corroded spider arm or an outer tub with holes in it won’t do you any good.

You can’t see it well in the photo, but where the arrows are pointing the pulley wheel dug into the outer tub leaving holes in the tub.

With all that said, you can probably find the bearings online or locally cheaper than what Jerod has them listed for on his site, but the seal that he sells is specifically for this kind application. Here are a list of model numbers and the bearings that work for the model numbers. You will need to purchase the seals from Jerod. (Source: http://www.hometask.com/washerrepair.aspx)